and after their own likeness." An elephant, a tiger, a monkey, a snake would quite naturally (and quite excusably) do the same. Exactly so the great Masters and Leaders of Religion have always been conceived of by the masses, by the ninety-nine out of a hundred, we may say, as nearly if not altogether like unto themselves. Ninety-nine out of a hundred are bigoted; being so, they build fences about their own Religious Conceptions and shut themselves in, and all who have different Conceptions out. They, and all the rest who are inside, are adherents of the one only and true Religion-the true Church. "The Chosen of God" are they; while all outside are Schismatics, Heretics, Infidels, Pagans, Heathen. Naturally these ninety-nine out of a hundred-whether Buddhists, Mohammedans, or Christians -always have done, and, so long as they continue bigoted, always will do, the same with their chosen Master's personality and teachings. Around Gautama, Mohammed, and Jesus alike they have built-from the beginning till nowfences of Fables, Traditions, Ecclesiasticisms, Dogmas, and Creeds. All who should choose to come within those fences would be The Faithful, holding the True and Saving Faith; all others would be “ Anathema." In order to justify themselves they have claimed that secret orders were somehow communicated by their great Leaders to some Chief Apostle, or to his successors, commanding these "fences" to be built and diligently kept up. No records, no tradition even, of such a command or of such "secret orders" are anywhere to be found. But bigotry in general, and priest-craft in particular, always falls back upon infallible Councils, on infallible Churches, or infallible Popes whenever the infallible Book proves insufficient. So has it been in all the Religions. Gautama, Mohammed, Jesus, and all the great Masters have been alike treated in this as in almost every other respect. Human nature is human nature everywhere. The masses are always the masses. Priest-craft is everywhere priestcraft. Bigots, like thorns, brambles, and weeds, cover the earth.

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XIX.-JESUS NO SECTARIAN, HIS RELIGION NO SECT.

In spite of all this, Jesus was no Sectarian, and his religion was no Sect. As wide as humanity were his sympathies, as old as human history was his Church. No 'fences," except those of humility and of penitence—of a desire to be pure in heart and of an aspiration to hunger and thirst after righteousness-did he build or tolerate. He was the friend of publicans and sinners, of Samaritan heretics, and of theological outcasts. His only detestations were for pompous, self-conceited "Saints," who glorified themselves and despised others. His only rejections were those of "Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites" and "Priests and Levites passing by on the other side "-using terms of to-day, hypocritical clergymen, self-parading Doctors of Divinity, bigoted and cold-hearted Church officials, and the front-seat-always-on-hand Church members who “devour widows' houses and for a pretence make long prayers." These, and these only, he detested and rejected, saying: "Woe! woe!-Therefore shall ye receive the greater condemnation. Thieves and harlots shall go into the Kingdom of God before you." Jesus then was a sectarian only in the sense that he excluded all hypocrites, bigots, and religious formalists. His religion was a "Sect" so broad that it included-the earth over and humanity through-all who were humble, loving, and sincere. This is the eclecticism of genuine Christianity to-day, "as it was in the beginning and ever shall be, world without end. Amen."

XX.-STUDY

OF COMPARATIVE RELIGION LEADS ΤΟ

CHRISTIANITY.

As we have already said, to this genuine Christianity, whose method is religious eclecticism, all intelligent and unprejudiced study of Comparative Religion must lead. "To which of these religions do you belong? To all, for all combined constitute the genuine religion." These are well known words of Goethe. They may be taken as the Universal Creed of all greatest scholars, poets, prophets, sages, and saints, including Jesus. Jesus himself formulated the

Creed so far as its substance was concerned. Goethe only condensed the whole life, and Gospel, of the Divine Nazarene into a single sentence when he composed those words. Indeed they are almost an exact rescript of the only Creed of Jesus that the New Testament traditions have handed down to us: "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren ? Whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in Heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." Upon the mind of the writer of these pages these words of Jesus made a deep impression in his early youth, and gradually shaped his Theology and directed his Religious life. While a schoolboy, a devout member and communicant of the Presbyterian Church, he heard a sermon preached by what was called a "loose though scholarly" Presbyterian minister upon the above words, and in the above spirit (though cautiously worded "for fear of the Jews"). That sermon helped him more than all the other sermons listened to during his student days. One figure used by the preacher he never could forget: Truth has been broken into a thousand fragments; every Religious sect and school has a fragment or two, at which they are tugging away, supposing it to be the whole Truth. What all great minds and Christlike souls are seeking to do is, to put an end to the janglings and strife by bringing the fragments together into One United Truth. This was a good figure. Similar ones have since met the writer's eye:-" Religious Truth is a Shield (not of two only but of a thousand sides); view every side, then will you have the Whole Truth."-" All Religions are the same wine in different colored glasses." This from Emerson would be a more exact figure if thus stated:-All forms of Religion are the same wine in different dilutions and in different colored glasses. Oriental figures are:-"The many rays emanating from one central lamp"-"The various colors of the beautiful carpet God has spread "—" Altar flowers are of many species, but all Worship is one.”—“ To him who on these pinions has risen and soared away to the throne of the Highest, all religions are like; Christians, Moslems, Guebers, Jews, all who are humble and sincere,

adore Him in their several ways and forms." To which may be added the saying of that Chief Apostle of Jesus, St. Peter, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that revereth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him."

XXI. CHRISTIANITY A VAST GRADED SCHOOL OF RELIGION.

While accepting all these and similar figures as helpful, the writer finds more of comprehensiveness and of exact correspondence to World-wide, History-through facts in this similitude. A great, complex, various, and ever varying System of Education adapted to every degree of intelligence and of culture; ranging from the Nursery and Kindergarten departments up through the Primary and other various grades to the College, the University, and the Post-University; with instructors and instructions adapted to each-like teachers like pupils, "like priests like people."—Such, in the wise Providence of the Eternal, is the Universal Religion of Mankind with its numerous and diversified Schools or Sects. If this Providential Scheme could only be recognized; if each department would attend to its own work and not attempt to dictate to, monopolize, or absorb (much less to anathematize) the others; if Priests, Ministers, or Teachers in the several grades would gracefully accept their especial stations and seek only to advance their congregations, and to graduate them upward as rapidly as possible-then all sectarianism, bitterness, rivalry, and hatred would cease and the Kingdom of God would at once be here. This was the Gospel of Jesus; it is time for us to go (as the first disciples did) into all the world and preach it to every creature. This is the Eclecticism of Christianity as Jesus taught and founded it. And this is Renascent Christianity.

XXII.-PROVE ALL; HOLD FAST THE GOOD.

While yet a student in Williams College, but more especially in the Union Theological Seminary of New York and in the Yale College Divinity School, the writer was frequently reproached by his fellow-students for his habit of

closely questioning and often refusing to accept, the Calvinistic Dogmas of his Presbyterian Sect, Text-books, and Professors. "These profound books, these learned instructors, our dignified and respectable Presbyterian Faith-who are you, a mere schoolboy, to question them!" The response always was,-Yes, but every one of the fifty or more Protestant Sects claims that it has profound books, learned instructors, a dignified and respectable Faith. The Roman Catholics claim the same; so do the Greek Catholics; so do the Jews; so does every one of the various schools and sects of the Mohammedan, Buddhistic, Confucian, Brahmanistic, Zoroastrian, and other Religions of the World. All alike claim and proclaim their wisdom, scholarship, and wide influence. As a fact there are learned men, influential men, and saintly men in them all. What then shall I do? To whom listen? Which especial System or Sect shall I unquestioningly accept? The one in which I was born? Then-" By the simple accident of birth I might have been High-Priest to Mumbo Jumbo."

No! I will listen to all; will question every one; and from them all will accept whatever I intelligently and honestly can. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

The great question is-not Which Religion, Church, Sect, School, System suits me best; to which can I most conveniently and agreeably belong? This may do as a starter; may be excusable until one can find time and opportunity to become broader and wiser, so as to make choice from his own intelligent conviction. But the "great question" is, What, in each and in all, can I accept as true, and conscientiously make into a Creed by which to guide and inspire my life? Of course such a Creed cannot be arrived at in a day or in a year. So every creed should be a gradual and a growing one— always open to new light, eager for improvement, like the busy bee "gathering honey from every flower," and ready to be changed or even retracted should growing intelligence and holiness combined demand it.

"What! Changed your mind so soon? Not I.

But it; that, changing to my thoughts, has changed my mind."